Desert Graveyard, the place where I left my heart
by Kyfra
Summary: Ever wondered about the way Gaara grew up in his village ? How he came to know his "siblings" ? Not much is revealed about that in Naruto. This fic relates his first first few years using my crazy imagination to fill in the blanks!
1. Desert Graveyard

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Note from the author (About the full fic):

I have been watching Naruto for quite a while now and I was surprised to see that the creators of that series never exploited the full potential of one of their very interesting characters. Don't you think that Gaara's story could have been even more detailed as he had a pretty interesting life? I think so. That is why I decided to write this story relating the first few years of young Gaara. I tried to keep the characters' personalities the best I could to make it realistic. Constructive reviews are welcome and, the most important thing, be honest about what you tell me in them !

Specific information about this chapter:

This prologue is just a little poem I wrote about Gaara's existence. It is not really a part of the story but I thought it was a nice way to start and put the readers in the mood ! Sorry about the seperation of the paragraphs. It seems that using the "horizontal rule" was the only way to make fanfiction notice that I was actually trying to split the text into 4 parts.

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**Desert Graveyard**

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In the harsh desert of reality

I had been looking for an oasis of love

Quicksand of loneliness absorbed me

Forever masking the stars of friendship glittering above

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In the harsh desert of reality 

I had been looking for an oasis of love

Sandstorms of insults struck me

"The monster" was the one they were afraid of

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In the harsh desert of reality 

I had been looking for an oasis of love

Mirages of joy tricked me momentarily

Before flying away as would some doves

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In the harsh desert of reality 

I ended up losing my way

Sunburns of pain consumed my heart entirely

Ashes are all that is left of me today

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I am Gaara of the desert. 


	2. The Dawning of the Sand

Specific information about this chapter:

I don't even know what the rating of this should be. There is even worse stuff on T.V. all the time and it's rated general ! Those ratings don't help much nowadays when we try to pick what kind of stuff we REALLY want to see/read. I guess I leave it up to the reader to decide to read this or not but be warned that some of you might be slightly disgusted by the chapter's content...

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**The Dawning of the Sand**

Lady Silver was wearing her most beautiful silky dress. She appeared to be as graceful as a very important daimyo. As she slightly moved across the dark, vast celestial stage, her pale skin was bathed in the light of small twinkling dots and a bigger scarlet spotlight. The dim lighting emphasized the whiteness of her milky skin. She gazed upon the world far below. The lass reached out and allowed her fingertips to graze the cold sand of a large desert for quite a while. She had to interrupt her soft caress because of a flock of clouds drawing near. They soon almost conquered the totality of the sky, hiding the majestic moon's parade for the rest of that night.

A long, deep sigh escaped a light-haired man's lips as he saw the show come to an end outside. He tried to concentrate on the few stars he could still see in order to stop himself from hearing the terrible wails of agony coming from behind him. A high pitched shriek of pain soon took him back to reality. Yashamaru did not want to be the one who had to remain with his beloved sister at that particular moment. He just couldn't take seeing her getting tortured so much for something she did not even wish for. He covered his ears and took a deep breath because he feared the worst. He knew it was not the right time to lose control and let his profound sadness and anger burst out in front of his agonizing sibling.

Yashamaru slowly spun around and walked back to the bed on which was resting a lass. She resembled him in her normal state but ever since this nightmare had begun, she seemed to be nothing more than a portrait of horror painted by fate. Her soft, velour skin and usual calm facial features were distorted with pain. Sweat drops and tears mixed together rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably while her hair stuck to her forehead.

"_Don't you worry."_ Whispered Yashamaru into his sister's ear in an attempt to comfort her. _"I'm here with you. Everything will be alright"_ He dragged a wet facecloth all over her face.

A timid knock was heard. Yashamaru frowned as he saw a man fully clad in white standing in the doorway. A black and blue ANBU mask representing a cat covered his face.

"_I am sorry that getting here took me such a long while. I left my house as soon as I was warned of her condition_." He bowed his head respectfully.

"_There is little time for apologies now. Would you please hurry up and do something for her? As a specialist, you must have something to ease the pain! "_

"_Yes I do but a normal childbirth doesn't necessarily require--"_

"_Exactly but this isn't just a regular childbirth as you say. "_ Interrupted Yashamaru as he shook his head rapidly_. "Since this baby is not completely human, you do know that the possibilities of abnormal complications are great." _

"_I was ready to face any eventuality when I accepted the job"_ The doctor coldly replied. He walked up to the bed, regaining his warm and humble attitude.

Yashamaru moved away, glad to finally let someone more appropriate deal with the burden of his nephew's birth. The medical expert crouched and gently lifted the bed sheets covering the woman's almost naked body. His eyes widened in shock as he patted her swollen belly. Yashamaru who had slightly begun to calm down got tensed once more.

The young mother drew her eyebrows together in confusion as she witnessed the doctor's reaction.

"_Wha... What is wrong? Tell me."_ She begged difficultly.

"_It seems that the baby isn't in a normal position for the moment. Nothing more serious than this. Are your contractions regular?"_

"_Yes and my water broke."_

"_This is odd. From how he is positioned, it appears that you are not ready to deliver yet but what you tell me is the exact opposite. A deeper examination shall tell us more."_

The doctor spread her legs open and inserted two fingers into her vagina. He soon realized the presence of an odd substance. He finally came to the conclusion that it was seemingly a mix of sand and blood.

"_I was wrong. The baby is placed properly. This is not the problem. It appears that it is clinging to her insides, though. Using what? That is what I wonder. Kazekage told me that his kid might be strange because of the Shukaku so I guess this is no surprise at all. Pain killers wouldn't help her at all. I believe it is too late to do anything. After all, I suspect that the only way to seal this evil spirit away, automatically requires the sacrifice of the lady who would bear the cursed child."_ He thought to himself. _"Well, I was mistaking!"_ He said out loud, putting his right hand on the girl's knee. _"It seems that it is time to push now!" _

Yashamaru nervously walked back and forth as he watched the scene from afar. He began to grow nauseous from the stress. _"Will this ever end and more importantly how will this end?"_ He questioned himself.

"_Push just a bit more and it will be over! I promise this is almost over!"_ Exclaimed the man using a convincing tone of voice.

Her sufferings grew even worse with time. The terrible experience finally came to an end much later. The specialist grimaced, totally disgusted as he held Kazekage's youngest son into his arms. He was relieved that no one could see his face thanks to his mask. As if angry with the doctor's attitude, the cursed one stretched out his sharp claws and slashed him, cutting his arm. The man laid down the deformed mass of sand, blood and flesh that composed the offspring in the cot that had previously been prepared to welcome him and brought his hand to the shallow wound. As for Yashamaru, his sight had become blurry. He still stared speechlessly at his sister and the scarlet sand dropping out of her womb.

" _Curse this all... Gaara... shall be his name... Gaara... of the desert...."_ These were the last words spoken by the strong lady before she could finally find peace.

The medical specialist bowed his head in respect once more. He cleared his throat.

"_This person was incredible. I never thought a human being could bear so much pain and not even fall unconscious. Those claws Gaara attacked me with tore her insides as well as her vaginal walls apart all the way through this. I am not supposed to say this because I knew she was nothing more than a sacrifice in Kazekage's eyes but I feel angry at him for making her go through all of this. I am sorry that I could not do more to help. As for this horrific creature, I am not sure that such a thing should even have the right to live. If you excuse me, I will go treat this wound before it gets infected by the presence of sand."_

Yashamaru finally passed out due to the whole unimaginable situation as the bright morning sun arose into the sky. It was the **_"Dawning of the Sand"._**


	3. In the Shadows, Thoughts and Feelings

Specific information about this chapter:

This chapter might be somewhat boring. In fact, It would have been easy to go on and on with this but I decided to keep it short and sweet because the story doesn't progress much in it. Its goal is only to explain what happened after Gaara's birth and before any action actually took place. It was still necessary though and I think it came out pretty well.

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**In the Shadows ; Thoughts and Feelings**

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The serene atmosphere of the hidden village of the Sand became more tensed than ever during the few weeks following _the_ event. The young mother's death greatly affected the inhabitants but it was not their main torment. Gaara's birth was. Rumors soon spread throughout the whole village. Some whispered that the Kazekage's son was some kind of monster while others said that he was not even a human being. Even though the words the people used differed slightly, everybody agreed to say that he was not normal.

For that reason, the Kazekage's house soon turned into a museum. He had the annoying feeling that, as soon as someone came to visit, they were in fact checking out the latest "beast exhibition". While most people were polite enough to pretend to "only be passing by" or "to be bringing good luck gifts for the child", the most curious ones simply stared at the baby whenever they had the chance to do so.

After a while, the leader couldn't bear the villagers' attitude anymore. He eventually had to forbid the mention of Gaara's name in any conversation. The Kazekage also told everyone to consider his son as the village's ultimate weapon, not as a human being if that was needed for him to be accepted.

People lost their interest in the whole affair over time and everything seemingly went back to normal. Yashamaru's life didn't follow the same pattern though. He had no interest in his nephew at all. In fact, he wished to forget about his existence but that was impossible ; the image of his deceased sister lingering in his mind was a constant reminder of the cursed child. Besides the painful daydreaming sessions, horrible nightmares haunted his sleep. Nightmares that he did not even think his mind capable of coming up with. They even increased after his sibling's autopsy. Indeed, the autopsy proved the medical specialist's theory ; the baby's claw had shredded his mother's womb. As if that was not enough, another odd fact was discovered. A normal human body usually contains approximately 5 liters of blood. However, the quantity of blood found in her body was abnormally low as if it had been drained out by something. Where was the lacking scarlet fluid of life? The only hypothesis proposed to answer this question was : Gaara. After further examinations of the child, it proved to be right.

Somehow, towards the end of the gestation period, young Gaara figured out a way to imprison his genitor's blood within his own organism. He, then, stocked it inside the weird-shaped lump on his back. It was only much later that this abnormally of his body was properly identified as some kind of gourd containing a mix of blood and sand.

Nothing else happened the first year following Gaara's birth. It took Yashamaru that long to finally accept his sister's fate and the events that had occurred.

When Gaara turned two, the Kazekage noticed that his son was beginning to develop a violent attitude. He knew that if this was not stopped immediately, his future perfect shinobi could turn out to be synonym for destruction for the hidden village. Since he always had business to take care of and he wanted to get rid of his monstrous son, Gaara's father tried to find someone else to do the work for him. Naturally, nobody wanted to adopt him ; some from fear and others from disgust. Finally, Yashamaru decided to do so even though he deeply hated his nephew as he was responsible for his sister's death. He accepted after considering that Gaara was still his sibling's only child and that he just couldn't let him be treated that way.

After that particular moment, Yashamaru slowly began to forgive Gaara. He still didn't feel himself able to love him but at least he succeeded in bearing the kid which was already a great improvement.

Gaara grew up not knowing much about his real father, the Kazekage, even though he constantly watched him from afar, hidden in the shadows. As soon as he was able to understand some of the things going on around him, Yashamaru told Gaara that he was not his dad but his uncle. The child never questioned that fact in the first few years of his life. He most likely thought that living with his uncle was a normal thing since children have a distorted vision of reality. He couldn't have a glimpse of normality anyway as he was kept away from other kids. That was until the age of 5. It was at that time, with the beginning of his attendance to the ninja academy of the Sand village, that his true discovery of life and the problems related to it began.


	4. The Storm within the Heart

Specific information about this chapter:

In this chapter, I introduce one of my own characters. His name is "Karasu". Since some of you don't know, "Karasu" means "Crow" in Japanese. This information might be useful later on. Finally, I would like to thank all of those who reviewed my work. It encourages me a lot.

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**The Storm Within the Heart**

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_"Gaara ! Come on, answer me ! "_ Yashamaru exclaimed in a happy tone. Silence was the only reply he received.

Gaara had a large smile painted on his face. He sighed in relief as he realized the outcome of the encounter. He had achieved victory once more. This duel against his most feared foe demanded even more strength than the previous one. The young boy had even considered surrendering at a specific point in the match but now that the goal was in sight, he was proud of himself. He had succeeded in staying up all night again. The bright morning light filling his room was a sure proof of it.

_"Gaara ? You must get ready to go to school. "_ Yashamaru insisted while knocking on his bedroom's door.

Gaara rolled over onto his side and gazed out the window. He rubbed his emerald eyes intensely as if he was trying to convince himself that he had just woken up. Days and nights were equivalent realities in the kid's opinion ; He only had to fight harder to stay awake when it was dark outside. Since Gaara felt even more lonely at times like these, he often spent his nights gazing at the sky, trying to see though the thick curtain of stars, in the hope of finding a friend somewhere behind what could be seen. This had never occurred though.

His bedroom's wooden door let out a loud shriek of pain as it burst open. An impatient Yashamaru stood in the doorway.

_"Gaara, would you at least care to answer me next time ? "_

_"I'm sorry. "_ He replied in an awfully shy tone. _"I was daydreaming and I don't want to go today."_

Yashamaru frowned as he walked into the room. He sat down on Gaara's small bed and smiled slightly.

_"I know. I didn't like it either but now I appreciate being a Sand ninja. You will too, later. In life, we often have to do things that we don't like first in other to gain some privileges. Do you understand that?"_

_"Uncle, I like school..."_

_"Then what's the problem?"_ Yashamaru interrupted him.

_"The people at school! I don't want to see them anymore ! I never want to see them again, never ever!"_ Young Gaara shook his head violently to emphasize the effect.

_"You started your studies a month ago. Give it time! I'm sure you'll make friends soon!"_

Gaara tried to make up countless excuses to stay home from school. Apparently, his babbling was not good enough for Yashamaru because he was standing in front of his house, wearing a light sweater, lunchbox in hand, only a few minutes later. He started walking towards his school, hugging it as if it was a stuffed animal.

_"I'm sacred of those people. They scare me even more than my bad dreams."_ He pondered to himself. The red-haired kid shivered as a somewhat cool October breeze caressed his face. He was still glad to be cold because he hated the usual desert heat.

Gaara tightened his grip on the small bag he was holding and hastened his steps. The sight of his school made him smirk. It was a good place to find warmth or coolness, depending on the temperature outside. He knew he could not hope to find warm students in the tall building, though.

The first thing Gaara noticed was that there was nobody outside. He had to make a considerable effort to open the large school door. The boy hurriedly entered and looked at the clock on the wall. He was 15 minutes late.

Gaara ran down the hallway towards his classroom. He knocked discretely to get his teacher's attention and motioned for him to come over. The man fully clad in black frowned. His broad shoulders and slim waist made him look like a top-shape athlete. The long ebony hair cascading loosely down his back was similar to a river of dark feathers.

_"Mister Karasu, I promise I will not be late again."_ Gaara told him before he had the time to say anything.

_"I will not accept that attitude anymore, lad. Understood?"_ He said, angrily.

Gaara bowed his head in order to avoid meeting his teacher's gaze. His pupil-less and iris-less white eyes were scary in the first place. He did not wish to see what they looked like when he was mad.

_"Give me that lunch bag. I will go put it with the others and hurry up, get in there ! "_

Whispers intensified as Gaara walked in, staring at the floor. He sank into the nearest free chair, wishing he could instantly vanish. Silence once again ruled the room when the teacher came back. Gaara eventually began to feel better. That day's lesson interested him more than usual and it took his attention away from reality for a while.

When the bell indicating recess time rang, he slowly made his way to the door. A kid stretched out his leg in order to make Gaara trip. The poor child never noticed it and fell down. Most of the students burst into laughter. The boy felt physical pain traveling down his spine and emotional pain welling up in his eyes. He went out of the room as fast as his feet could take him.

Raindrops uncontrollably rolled down the sandy surface forming Gaara's cheeks. His unusual skin avidly absorbed the watery substance. He sat down on the old swing in the school's backyard, trembling in sadness. The feeling of a warm hand on his back surprised him.

Storms only occur once in a while in the desert but in Gaara's case, they are simply part of his everyday life...


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